Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Wine, Woman and Hoppy Things

I spent the weekend on the Gower with Miss Frisbee Girl. We caught a bus to Horton and then walked along the coast to Oxwich. The beach there is amazing... We found a nice place to camp at the base of a dune and made an excellent driftwood fire. The stars were huge and we drank wine and it turned into one of those nights I'll always remember. A couple of hours after midnight I thought it had started raining -- I felt the drops on my face and neck -- but when I opened my eyes the stars were still out. Then I took a closer look at one of the 'raindrops' and saw it was actually a little hoppy creature*. The beach was full of them... They quickly drove us off the sand and onto the dunes!

When dawn came we ran down to the sea hand in hand and jumped into the waves. The water was freezing! Then the sun came up and thawed us out. We walked to Three Cliffs Bay and I persuaded Miss Frisbee Girl to let me carry her across a river** in the old fashioned style. We walked back to Mumbles via Tor Bay, Caswell and Langland, and then stopped in a pub for a few well earned beers. By the time I eventually got home I was utterly shattered, so tired that the following day I didn't leave the house!

This was one of the best weekends I've had for ages and ages. Miss Frisbee Girl isn't very good at remembering the names of places. The only way she can remember the name 'Oxwich' is by thinking of a big cow with a pointy hat.

I've always known the Hoppy Things as Sand Flees, as a child going to the beach i enjoyed digging through the sand trying to force them out...Being overwhelmed by a million of those things does not have the same allure...Perhaps you also enjoyed torturing the little things as a child and that is a little karmic payback.